Amber Portwood sentenced to five years in prison after quitting rehab program

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 06/05/2012

Amber Portwood has been sentenced to five years in jail -- a punishment which is basically compliant with the wishes of the Teen Mom star.

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An Indiana judge reimposed Portwood's prior jail sentence from a December arrest for drug and probation violations on Tuesday morning after she deliberately pulled out of a rehab program which had kept the sentence suspended, TMZ reported.

Portwood was sentenced to five years in prison in February but it had been stayed as part of a plea deal in which the Teen Mom star was ordered to complete an intense drug rehabilitation program. However, Portwood had also been warned she would be put behind bars to serve her jail sentence if she failed to adhere to the program's requirements.

Portwood struggled to stay clean in the months since and insisted in late May she couldn't handle the rehab treatment anymore and wanted to go to prison instead -- a request the judge granted after he rejected her attorney's plea for leniency and proceeded to impose Portwood's original form of punishment, according to TMZ.

Portwood -- who has reportedly claimed lengthy incarceration may be the only way to curb her "brutal" addiction to a morphine-like drug once and for all -- will receive credit for time she has already served in jail. However she is still likely to serve at least two and a half years in prison even with time off for good behavior, according to authorities.

"I don't know that she realized she would actually go to prison," Madison County prosecutor Rodney Cummings told the Indianapolis Star.

"I don't think she's been realistic about the whole thing all along. Whatever celebrity comes along with [Teen Mom], I think she thought it was going to prevent her from being held accountable. That just has not been accurate."

According to Cummings, Portwood -- who failed a urine test in May and then lied to investigators about why -- would probably have received additional chances and avoided jail if she had not decided to end rehab.

"Relapse is a part of the pharmacology of treatment," he told the Star. "But she just said she couldn't do it and wanted out of the program. The consequence for opting out was jail time. That already had been determined."